Pro-lifers likely behind tasteless ‘Birth or Not’ site

The recently launched website birthornot.com, inviting people to vote on whether a couple should abort their fetus, has caused quite a stir. But is it just a tasteless pro-life stunt?

Pete and Alisha Arnold: players in a pro-life prank?

Meet Pete and Alisha Arnold. They live in Minneapolis and work as tech professionals. They’ve been married 10 years, and they’re both 30 years old. Seems like parenthood might be the next step for this couple? Alisha is actually pregnant, yet the Arnolds don’t know whether they’re ready to raise a child.

And so they’ve launched a disturbing website, birthornot.com, inviting the general public to vote on whether Alisha should give birth to the baby or abort.

Nearly 300,000 people have voted, and of those 50.8 percent think Alisha should have the baby and 49.2 percent are suggesting an abortion. (Keep in mind many of these votes likely came from the 4chan message board where visitors were encouraged to vote for the abortion.) Voting ends December 9, the last day Alisha can legally get an abortion in her state.

The Arnolds are blogging regularly, reporting on the progress of the fetus, breaking the news that it’s a boy, and running ultrasound images, even a video.

Alisha and Pete share their uncertainties about parenthood in the blog. Alisha has had three prior unsuccessful pregnancies–and there was a time when she truly wanted a child. But now she’s not so sure. She writes in a blog post:

Sure, Pete and I have been married for almost a decade now with no kids to show for it, but I’m not convinced that I want to change the status quo. I feel that as I age I’ve actually gotten more selfish and set in my ways. I’m afraid that I will eventually regret starting a family and “settling down”, as they say. I fear that the constant pressure to be the perfect wife and mother while maintaining a full-time job will eventually cause my brain to implode and lead to a nervous breakdown. And the fact that this pregnancy puts a big hold on my weight-loss progress is disappointing. Add in the fact that I’ve had three unsuccessful pregnancies already and I’m sure you’ll understand why my stress-level is going through the roof.

On the other hand I’ve always loved kids (okay, most kids) and encountering a baby in a store or a park will undoubtedly lead me to silly smiles and “baby talk”. I enjoy attending baby showers for my friends and family and look forward to the opportunity to spend time with my young nephews. I glance wistfully at mothers pushing baby strollers at the fair and continually decorate our nursery in my mind. I imagine what it would look like to see Pete holding our son or daughter in his arms and the goofy smile that it would bring to his face.

It’s not unusual for pregnant women to share their conflicting feelings about motherhood in blog posts these days but the fact that this mom (and her husband) are inviting the public to vote on whether they should abort is new (not to mention disturbing).

Gawker first broke the story of the Arnolds, and the site suspects this is a sick pro-life stunt. Yet Gawker reporter Adrian Chen apparently spoke with the Arnolds and Alisha said, “It’s definitely not a pro-life campaign. I believe in a woman’s right to choose.”

Amanda Marcotte, a blogger for DoubleX also doesn’t buy it and has done some smart detective work. For example, she notes that the reference to “The Pill” is put in quotes with capital letters on the About page, and this shows that the couple probably “spend a lot of time in spaces where the pill is treated like some scary, evil, world-changing object, like ‘The Fascism.'”

Marcotte also points out that the Arnolds treat abortion as a lark. She writes: “The people who believe that abortion is treated like a lark aren’t really pro-choicers. That women get abortions between getting their nails done and grabbing coffee like it’s no big thing is a myth promoted by anti-choice activists. That this myth suddenly shows up as personified by these two isn’t a coincidence.”

Ministry of Truth has dug up even more proof that it’s a hoax. They found evidence linking this site to the climate change denier site “The Church of Global Warming.” Ministry of Truth reports: “Although both sites have been registered anonymously, examination of each site’s source code shows that both sites have their web traffic monitored from the same Google Analytics account — UA-7524334.”

Marcotte predicts how this will all end: “The voters will say they should have an abortion, and the follow-up post will be the couple rejecting the evils of abortion after taking one more look at the ultrasound and falling in love. Then this will become part of anti-choice folklore.”